Joan Tower: Strike Zones: Small; Still/Rapids; Ivory and Ebony

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Placing instruments at the heart of her writing – and featuring a tautly responsive Albany Symphony under conductor David Alan Miller – this handsomely recorded album presents a concerto and... — BBC Music Magazine, September 2021, 4 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 5 out of 5 stars (Recording) More…

Release Date: 23rd Jul 2021
Catalogue No: 8559902
Label: Naxos
Series: American Classics
Length: 53 minutes

Presto Editor's Choice

July 2021

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Tower: Strike Zones

Work length21:17

Album only

Evelyn Glennie
Albany Symphony Orchestra
David Alan Miller

Tower: Small

Work length6:36

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Evelyn Glennie

Tower: Still / Rapids

Work length17:47

$4.00

$5.15

$7.00

Blair McMillen
Albany Symphony Orchestra
David Alan Miller

I. Still

Track length5:00

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

II. Rapids

Track length12:47

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Tower: Ivory and Ebony

Work length7:31

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Blair McMillen

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About

Joan Tower is widely regarded as one of today’s most important American composers. The works heard here in their world premiere recordings are part of a growing legacy that one pundit has described as “The Power of Tower.” Strike Zones is tailor-made for percussionist Evelyn Glennie’s dazzling technique and impeccable musicianship. The work’s orchestration is crafted to enhance a stage filled with percussion instruments – while in Small they are contained on a single table, the soloist working like a brilliant chef. The piano concerto Still/Rapids was inspired by the glistening beauty and powerful force of water, and Ivory and Ebony, written as a test piece for an international piano competition, is infused with Tower’s “high-energy” signature.

Reviews

September 2021

Placing instruments at the heart of her writing – and featuring a tautly responsive Albany Symphony under conductor David Alan Miller – this handsomely recorded album presents a concerto and solo work apiece for percussion and piano...Glennie expertly dances her way through a woodmetal-skin array, the high point a somewhat sinister castanet trio with two orchestral percussionists.

October 2021

all this virtuosity and incident is crammed into one action-packed disc lasting just 53 minutes: the Power of Tower, indeed. Recommended.

July 2021

Glennie is on mercurial, athletic form in the title-work, written for her in 2001 and showcasing an entire battery of percussion instruments including marimba, glockenspiel, vibraphone and castanets; Blair McMillen is scarcely less compelling in the piano concerto Still/Rapids, a two-part waterscape depicting a calm, iridescent lake on a summer’s day followed by a white-knuckle river-ride of a toccata.

22nd July 2021

Glennie gives a dynamic performance here, and Blair McMillen makes sparkling work of the mini piano concerto Still/Rapids.

Joan Tower: Strike Zones

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